Our Mission, Purpose and Goals
Our Mission:
The United States Catholic Mission Association unites and supports people committed to the cross-cultural and global mission of Jesus Christ in service to the Church and the world.
Purpose:
The signs of our times call us to focus our engagement in Christian mission and to foster and support existing and new forms of cross-cultural and inter-religious partnerships. At the heart of mission is a spirituality that summons us to accompany the poorest in the world, to raise our collective voice, to engage the new secularity and to seek alternatives within the process of globalization. As missioners, we have a unique ability to move humanity toward transforming global community and to help overcome the polarities that characterize our era.
USCMA is an association open to mission sending congregations and societies, diocesan mission offices, individual missioners, and others interested in cross-cultural and global solidarity. We seek to provide a forum in which people with a variety of experiences in mission can welcome, celebrate faith, inspire, educate and challenge one another to continue growing in our efforts to further the mission of Jesus.
Goals:
Over the next five years, we will concentrate our efforts on the integration of the key elements of mission: proclamation, witness, dialogue, spirituality and prayer, reconciliation and social transformation.
Response to our baptismal call urges us to envision and witness to mission as a journey of hope, moving us toward the social transformation and reconciliation that proclaim the Reign of God in our midst.
As members of a multi-cultural, pilgrim church, missionary by her very nature (Ad Gentes, 2), we feel impelled to widen our net, gathering people with a variety of mission experiences to reflect on our stories, enrich our spirituality and stimulate creative mission practices.
As the only association of Catholics in or from the U.S. involved in home or international mission, we are called to leadership in exploring emerging trends in mission, catalyzing partnerships among mission groups and promoting global relationships of solidarity.
ACTIVITIES
- Annual USCMA Mission Conference
An annual gathering of members and those concerned about mission both at home and abroad
- Transformative Dialogue Project
Increasing effectiveness in promoting mission on the local level by encouraging collaborative initiatives in cross-cultural and global mission
- Networking and Resourcing Opportunities
Connecting missioners and mission institutes for collaborative opportunities in different areas of mission – orientation, renewal, and updating on mission, scripture, theology, and social analysis.
- Ecumenical Mission Endeavors
Consultations to strengthen bonds of relationships in ecumenical partnership
PUBLICATIONS A quarterly newsletter providing information on mission trends, global concerns, educational resources, and updates on groups involved with mission education and global solidarity
A quarterly series on the praxis, theology, and content of missionary activity
- U.S. Catholic Mission Handbook
The results of the survey to U.S. Catholic sending organizations that solicits data on missioners serving beyond the U.S. boundaries, as well as, those doing mission within the United States
ON LINE CONNECTIONSwww.uscatholicmission.org serves as a conduit for the networking of contemporary mission efforts. The web site is updated regularly with the latest mission related news, statistics and resources. Conferences, workshops, seminars and links to other valuable Catholic and ecumenical mission related resources make it a site that you will want to revisit.
www.mission-education.org utilizes the resources and experiences of its sponsors and their members, the site offers to every age group, as well as to parishes, the opportunity to discover the what, the how, and the why of mission today.
MEMBERSHIPUSCMA is a membership-based organization. Its members are involved in establishing the direction of the association; they support its life through participation in its research and activities; they provide the financial base that keeps the association viable. USCMA is open to missionary and mission sending organizations and societies, diocesan mission offices, individual missioners, and others interested in cross-cultural mission and global solidarity.
